Learning and coaching

Today I´ve written an article for Rosa Say´s community on lifelong learning. The article bears the title "Learning and the richness of life". You can read it here.

In addition to this article I want to write some other reflections on learning. I will focus on the  systemic aspects of learning. Sometimes I´ve been asked about the requirements of any learning system within companies in order to achieve success or at least promote change.

These are my conclusions on the issue:

1. Learning is aimed to foster transformation. Period.

If a company does not seek transformation as a desirable goal, their learning program will be just another bureaucratic task to be accomplished by the personnel. And I have talked about transformation, not change. You change things when you move things from one place to another or get rid of something. Change is an epidermic action, it stays on the surface of the company´s body. What companies need today is transformation, that is, a depth effect.

2. Learning must be integrated with work.

If you just send your employees to a workshop and you suppose in advance they will "learn something" from the learning action, you are wasting your time. Or to say it other way, you are just wasting an opportunity for transformation. You will of course waste your money. Then it is not an alternative I would ever choose. Just integrate! Learning IS a side of your work. It´s not something you must do after the working hours.

3. If you are an employer, let your employees absolute freedom to learn what they want.

This is the best way to foster innovation in a company. At first you will think some people are learning things they just don´t need for the work. Just one advice: the more different their path is the more opportunities you will have to innovate within the company.

4. Give time.

New paths always require a work of breaking conventional reasonings and practices. The new one will also need a period of maturing. Don´t be too anxious from the first moment. Would you demand inmediate results if your employees just attended a new workshop on let´s say, Leadership?

5. Judge on results.

Always judge on results. That´s the only difference between a creative person and the bureaucrat, that person who has been in the last ten cool workshops but has produced nothing new. I have seen CVs with so many workshops and titles that I almost felt scared but when it came to working they were unable to make up a new perspective or a new product.

6. The budget is something flexible, don´t forget it.

There´s no reason for a company to avoid employees from deciding on their budget for learning. And it is absolutely exceptional to see employees decide on their learning actions. The company has to be a helper in the learning actions, but not the deciding element. If the employee wants to suscribe to a japanese magazine on quality, why should the company forbid that decision?  The employee will be excited, will see she´s got autonomy and will feel responsible for her learning activities and the effort the company is doing to make her feel happy.

7. Give some kind of sense to the learning actions.

The previous points were more individually focused. If the company has to take advantage of the different learning activities of their employees has to give sense to all those actions. That will be one of the most important functions for the company in the learning field.

Comments

[Rosa Say]

Interesting Felix; I like the way you differentiate change and transformation, and I share your call for work integration from new learning.

Thank you too, for the wonderful article you have written for Talking Story today; to learn from you is indeed our pleasure.
Aloha e, Rosa

[Felix Gerena]

Thanks for your invitation, Rosa. It´s been a pleasure to have these synergies.

[Trevor Gay]

Brilliant Felix.

When we believe we are no longer learning is the time to just curl up and die. My Grandmother died at 91 years of age and as a young man I remember her always telling me she was still learning. It is a most tragic situation when budgets are tight that training is always the budget heading that is cut. My opinion is that when your company is in trouble then that is the time to invest more in training. In fact if investment in training is adequate in the first place many companies would not end up in trouble!!